Nanomedicine and Theranostics

Nanomedicines are 1-100(0) nm-sized carrier materials designed to improve the biodistribution and the target site accumulation of systemically administered (chemo-) therapeutic drugs. By delivering drugs more specifically to pathological sites, and by preventing them from accumulating in potentially endangered healthy tissues, nanomedicines are able to improve the balance between the efficacy and the toxicity of systemic drug therapies.Efforts in the Dept. of Nanomedicine and Theranostics, which is part of the Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging at RWTH Aachen University, focus on the use of nanomedicine formulations for treating cancer and inflammatory disorders. In close collaboration with several universities (Utrecht, Twente, Maastricht) and companies in The Netherlands, with the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, and with a number of colleagues at RWTH Aachen University, various different types of drug delivery systems are being evaluated, including e.g. liposomes, polymers and micelles. These carrier materials are loaded with chemotherapeutic agents and with corticosteroids, as well as with imaging agents. The resulting ‘theranostic’ nanomedicines, which contain both diagnostic and therapeutic properties within a single formulation, are considered to be useful for individualizing and improving treatments, enabling image-guided drug delivery to tumors, to metastases, to inflammatory lesions (e.g. arthritis, colitis, atherosclerosis, liver and kidney fibrosis), and to the brain. In addition, such theranostics concepts and constructs can be employed for non-invasive and quantitative efficacy monitoring, as well as for image-guided tissue engineering.

Projects at the Nanomedicine and Theranostics group are coordinated by Prof. Twan Lammers, and are performed in close collaboration with the other four working groups at the Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging. Because of this, we are able to cover almost all aspects of nanomedicine and drug delivery research. These e.g. include the chemical procedures and the pharmaceutical technologies necessary to produce, load and label nanomedicines; the use of state-of-the-art in vivo and ex vivo imaging techniques; and access to advanced animal models. Moreover, efforts in our group profit from the shared intention of the institute’s PIs to deeply understand the underlying mechanisms of cancer and inflammatory disorders, related e.g. to angiogenesis, inflammation, macrophage infiltration and macrophage polarization. As somewhat smaller side projects, we also work on multi-drug resistance, on sonoporation, on nanotoxicity testing, and on theranostic tissue engineering.

Our work is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), by the European research Council (ERC) and by the European Commission (EC). In addition, several group members have managed to obtain own internal funding (RWTH) or individual scholarships, provided e.g. by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

Group members

Dr. Josbart Metselaar

Josbert (Bart) (PhD in Pharmaceutics, Utrecht University, 2004) started the company Enceladus Pharmaceuticals in 2004. With the help of grants, investments and non-equity funding, he managed to perform a series of preclinical and clinical trials focusing on three different liposomal nanomedicine products. Since 2012, he has worked as a part-time assistant professor at the University of Twente. In 2015, he also took up a group leader position at RWTH Aachen, to extend his work on the development of nanomedicines for the treatment of inflammatory disorders and cancer.

Dr. Patrick Koczera

Patrick obtained his M.D. at RWTH University in 2013. He joined EXMI in 2011 for his doctoral thesis in the field of BBB disruption by sonoporation. By receiving the Rotationsstipendium of the Medical Faculty of RWTH Aachen University, he was given the opportunity to return to ExMI, to work on the translation of nanomedical drug formulations for sepsis therapy. This work will be combined with his residency at the Klinik für Operative Intensivmedizin und Intermediate Care and the Klinik für Anästhesiologie.

Dr. Sandra Schipper

Sandra obtained her PhD (Maastricht University) in the field of Neurology focusing on the pharmaceutical treatment of cognitive co-morbidities in epilepsy in 2016. After that she worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Urology at Maastricht University Medical Centre. In 2017, she joined the Department of Nanomedicine and Theranostics for the development of a novel method to apply neuromodulation, via the use of nanoparticles, after receiving a prestigious NWO Rubicon grant from the Dutch Government. Her research is performed in close collaboration with the Department of General, Visceral and Transplantation Surgery (Academic Hospital Aachen, Prof. Dr. Neumann). Being trained as a medical Doctor (M.D.) and clinical researcher (M.Sc.), Sandra focuses on inter-disciplinary and translational research.

Dr. Yang Shi

Yang obtained a PhD in pharmaceutics from Utrecht University in 2014. Afterwards, he worked as an Associate Professor at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou. Since 2016, he has been appointed as a Group Leader at The Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging (ExMI) at RWTH Aachen University Hospital and at the Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering. His research focuses on synthetic polymers for image-guided drug delivery. His research activities include design and synthesis of amphiphilic block copolymers self-assembling into core-shell nanoparticles, which are loaded with hydrophobic therapeutic agents, and are labeled with diagnostic agents to enable in vivo visualization.

Zaheer Ahmed

Zaheer (M.Sc. Life Science, Hanyang University, South Korea, 2015) works on the development of targeted nanoparticles for the treatment of cancers. The underlying purpose of his DAAD fellowship is to harness the potential of inorganic nanoparticles such as nanoceria and to employ them to improve the efficacy and reduce the toxicity of anticancer therapy.

Xiangyang Bai

Xiangyang (M.Sc. in Material Science and Engineering, 2015) conducted research on inorganic nanoparticles as novel antibiotics at The Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Currently he is performing his PhD research on the development of polymeric nanotheranostics for the treatment of cancer, via a grant funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC).

Caterina Biondi

Caterina Biondi (University of Urbino, Italy) is a master student in Pharmacy. She is currently working at the Department of Nanomedicine and Theranostics on the histopathological characterization of breast cancer samples treated with different drugs, including nanomedicine formulations and anti-angiogenic agents.

S. M. Ali Dadfar

Ali (M.SC. Chemical Engineering, Polymer Science and Nanotechnology, Sharif University of Technology, December 2009) works on temperature-responsive and multi-drug-loaded liposomes for tumor targeted combination therapy. In addition, he also participates in project on drug-loaded polymeric micelles for theranostic application.

Anshuman Dasgupta

Anshuman (B.Sc. in Pharmacy, BITS Pilani, India) works on a project aiming to improve drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier. He is particularly interested in the synthesis and functionalization of microbubbles, to facilitate their use for ultrasound-mediated sonoporation.

Federica De Lorenzi

Federica (M.Sc. Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, University of Urbino, Italy 2016) focuses on the preclinical evaluation of different nanomedicines regarding their efficiency to target breast cancer metastasis. In this context, she employs various in vitro and in vivo imaging techniques to monitor and visualize metastatic lesions, to investigate the tumor microenviroment and to assess the efficacy of antimetastatic therapy.

Susanne Golombek

Susanne (M.Sc. in Molecular Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University, 2013) works on the evaluation of different nanomedicines to improve their function in combined anticancer therapy. In this context she characterizes different tumor models regarding the EPR effect. In addition she participates in several studies on particle toxicity and the visualization and design of patient-customized implants.

Mengjiao Liu

Mengjiao (M.Sc. in Pharmaceutics, Sichuan Agricultural University, China 2015) obtained a stipend from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to join the Nanomedicine and Theranostics group. The primary aim of her work is to develop multifunctional microbubbles to enhance drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and to improve the treatment of brain tumors.

Jan-Niklas May

Jan-Niklas (M.Sc. Biology, RWTH Aachen) is a PhD student, who is involved in a project regarding the analysis of nanocarrier accumulation in the brain upon ultrasound-mediated and microbubble-assisted blood-brain barrier opening. Therefore, he uses many imaging techniques such as hybrid CT-FMT, fluorescence microscopy and multiphoton laser microscopy.

Diana Möckel

Diana (B.Sc. in Bioscience and Health, HSRW Kleve) works as a lab technician and is involved in many different projects, focusing e.g. on tumor angiogenesis, on drug targeting to tumors and on liver fibrosis. She not only contributes to cell culture, immunohistochemistry and microscopy, but also to diagnostic and therapeutic in vivo and ex vivo experiments.

Tarun Ojha

Tarun (M.Sc. in Nanoscience and MTech in Nanotechnology, Amity University, India 2013) focuses on the evaluation of nanomedicine formulations in tumors with different levels of EPR. He evaluates methods to monitor and modulate angiogenesis, including vascular normalization, in order to improve drug targeting to tumors, and to enhance the efficacy of combination therapies.

Vertika Pathak

Vertika (M.Sc. in Nanoscience and M.Tech in Nanotechnology, Amity University, India 2013) works on materials and methods to improve drug and oxygen delivery to tumors, in particular to brain tumors. The primary focus of her work is on alleviating tumor-associated hypoxia, via strategies such as nanomedicine-mediated vascular normalization, in order to improve the efficacy of combined modality anticancer therapy.

Elena Rama

Elena (University of Urbino, Italy) is a master student in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology. She is currently working on her master thesis at the Department of Nanomedicine and Theranostics, RWTH Aachen University, focusing on the histopathological characterization of sensitive and doxorubicin-resistant breast cancer samples.

Karolin Römhild

Karolin (Dipl. Chemistry, WWU Münster, 2012) focuses on iron metabolism and the impact of iron in tumor growth and progression. Part of the project is to investigate alterations in tumor microenvironment and macrophage polarization under iron overloaded or depleted conditions.

Ravin Sharma

Ravin Sharma is pursuing his M.Sc. in Medical Biotechnology at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. His current project at the Department of Nanomedicine and Theranostics at RWTH Aachen focuses on the synthesis and characterization of amphiphilic block polymers for the development of theranostic micelles.

Qingxue Sun

Qingxue obtained Master of Medicine at Shandong University in 2010. She is currently performing her PhD research at RWTH Aachen University Clinic, focusing on the application of nanomedicines in cancer immunotherapy.

Benjamin Theek

Benjamin (M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, 2011) focuses on the design and evaluation of polymeric and liposomal nanomedicines for vascular normalization, in order to improve the efficacy of combined modality anticancer therapy. In addition, he develops methods for using ultrasound-based perfusion monitoring to reduce the interindividual variability in image-guided drug delivery and tumor targeting studies. Furthermore, he is involved in several different studies focusing on (theranostic) microbubbles, angiogenesis and liver fibrosis.

Robert Tungadi

Robert (M.Sc. Pharmacy, Hasanuddin University, Indonesia, 2008) is working on liposome formulations for the delivery of natural compounds. His project, which primarily focuses on pharmaceutical engineering and on in vitro and in vivo testing, is funded via an Indonesian scholarship.

Paola Varvara

Paola (M.Sc. Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, University of Palermo, 2014) is enrolled in the PhD program in Molecular and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of Palermo. She is currently a visiting PhD student at RWTH Aachen University Clinic. Her research project deals with the polymer synthesis and the design of nano-sized carriers as drug delivery systems. She is mainly working on drug-loaded polymeric micelles for theranostic applications.

Bi Wang

Bi Wang (M.Sc. in Material Physical Chemistry, Shenzhen University, China 2017) obtained a stipend from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to join the Nanomedicine and Theranostics group. The primary aim of my work is to develop multifunctional micelle to enhance drug delivery efficacy and to improve the tumors treatment efficacy.

Maryam Sheybanifard

Maryam (M.Sc. in Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, 2014) is a member of the research training group “Tumor-Targeted Drug Delivery”. She mainly focuses on actively targeted liposome formulations in a continuous flow manufacturing set-up. She also contributes to the polymeric micelles preparation and characterization project.